This Chai cheesecake tart is a crumbly pate sucre crust filled with rich, creamy chai spice flavored cheesecake and topped with a rosette of thinly sliced apples. An elegant yet easy dessert for any special occasion.
2Tablespoonssugar in the raw(regular old sugar is fine too)
small pinch fine sea salt
¼teaspoonchai baking spice
Instructions
For the Pate Sucre
This is the pate sucre recipe I use. You will need 1/2 batch. If using your favorite pie crust recipe, remember to add the chai spice to the dry ingredients.
Add 1/2 teaspoon chai baking spice to the flour and sugar and proceed as written
You'll only be adding 1 tablespoon of cream (or half and half) to the dough. You may need a bit more. Just give it time to mix in on low speed before adding more. Squeeze some dough together in your hand. Even if it looks dry, if it holds together nicely when squeezed, you're done.
Do not pre-bake/blind-bake. The original directions call for freezing before baking. That step is not necessary for this tart, but do make sure the filled tart pan is well-chilled before pouring in the cheesecake batter.
For the Cheesecake
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, mix the cream cheese on low speed until smooth. Scrape the bowl and beater as necessary.
Add the sugar, salt, lemon zest, chai baking spice and vanilla extract and continue to mix until well incorporated and smooth.
Mix in the sour cream completely followed by the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the bowl and beater as necessary.
Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan. It will only fill the crust about halfway. The rest of the room is for the apples.
Place the filled crust in the fridge while you deal with the apples.
For the Apples
Leave the apples unpeeled unless you can't deal with apple peel.
Wash the apples well and then slice them very thinly into crescents using either a very sharp knife or a mandolin.
As you slice the apples, put them in a bowl of cold water with some lemon juice added to them. This will keep them from browning.
Once all the apples are sliced, remove them from the bowl and pat them dry. They don't have to be bone dry. You just don't want them to drip all over everything.
Start placing the apples around the perimeter of the crust. Stand them up on their cut ends so the peel is up. You can poke them down into the cheesecake filling just a bit. It will hold them in place. The more thinly you can cut them, the easier it will be to let them curve gently to follow the curve of the crust.
Place the apple slices one by one, each overlapping the previous one by about half. Keep placing apples in a continuous spiral in towards the center. Make sure the last few apples are very thinly sliced and flexible so you can roll the very last one up into a cylinder to act as the center of the "flower."
To Finish and Bake
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Mix the raw sugar (or plain sugar) together with the salt and the chai baking spice.
Sprinkle this evenly over the apples.
Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake in the center of the oven for 45 minutes to an hour until the center of the tart reads between 160-165. The filling will be slightly puffed and when you gently shake the pan, it won't "slosh" but will jiggle in the center 3-4" or so.
Turn off the oven and open the door for a few seconds to allow some heat to escape.
Close the door and let the tart sit in the oven for about thirty minutes.
Prop the door open and let cool for another hour or so before removing the tart to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
You can serve it now, but it's fairly delicate. Slice it very carefully with a serrated bladed, cutting only from the inside out (no sawing!) until you've cut through the apple peels. Then, you can saw a little and complete your cuts.
You can also refrigerate the cake. Just allow it to sit out for about 30 minutes before slicing (again--no sawing!) and serving.
Notes
If this all seems like a daunting amount of work, you can split it up over a couple of days.
Make the dough and line the pan. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
Make the cheesecake filling the next day and refrigerate it in a bowl.
When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven, pour the cheesecake batter into the tart shell, slice up the apples and arrange them Fetchingly on top of the batter.